1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network device, and a method of controlling the network device, that can collect video signals and can be accessed via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to developments in network technology, network devices providing various functions have become available. Conventional Internet Protocol (IP) network devices according to the related art typically only function to transmit their own multimedia data that is generated by receiving video data via an input unit. The conventional IP network devices uni-directionally transmit the generated multimedia data only to a client that requests data via a network. In this regard, there are no conventional IP network devices that can receive a data packet delivered via a network, and then re-edit, re-distribute, and re-process the data.
In general, the network devices transmit video data via a network. However, the video data may be damaged, the image quality of the video data may be degraded, discontinuities in the audio data may occur, and product quality may deteriorate according to network circumstances and the amount of data to be transmitted, due to the non-existence of a compressed streaming data transmitting method which is suitable for a network bandwidth that varies irregularly.
The conventional IP network devices perform a network operation by using one routing address to access a network. However, in the case where a designated router abnormally operates or malfunctions, the conventional IP network devices may not normally operate due to the non-existence of a technique by which the conventional IP network devices can detect the abnormal situation, and thus find another router or replace the malfunctioning router. Also, when a specific IP network device is over-loaded or over-accessed, there is no suitable solution so that a system-down occurs. In the case where the specific IP network device is a remote detecting device, the specific IP network device may not perform its own function as the remote detecting device due to a network problem such as a malfunctioning router.
Furthermore, when video data, which is input via an input unit of the conventional IP network devices, is abnormal due to external manipulation, there is no method for the conventional IP network devices to detect this abnormality.